Gods of the Unterzee

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The frozen halls of Frostfound.

"'Nearly there,' a zailor mutters. 'King Storm, stay your anger. Queen Stone, preserve our hearts. Salt, tempt us not - '
"'Belay that heathen prattling!" the bo'sun roars."

On the Surface, sailors have always been superstitious people, with tall tales of supernatural entities helping or hindering them on their travels. On the Zee it's no different... but the Zee's superstitions might actually hold some truth, for it is full of things no mortal can possibly comprehend.

The three foremost gods of the Unterzee are Storm, Stone, and Salt. The Gods' secrets are buried within the icy depths of Frostfound.

Storm

"Now and then, rocky fragments fall from the roof of the Neath. The decks of older ships are pocked with scars. The sound is one no land-lubber knows, and no zailor will ever forget. This one has smashed the glass of a deck-binnacle. "Ill omen!" one sailor cries. "The god in the roof! Storm is angry!"

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Neath is a cold, deep, and dark place, mostly devoid of any kind of weather, but sometimes London finds itself battered by strange winds and squalls. Zailors claim that the source of these phenomena is a god called Storm; he is a vengeful, spiteful deity who dislikes change and maintains an ancient sort of order. Those who draw his ire meet the most unfortunate of ends, and captains who have drawn his attention have found their crew members attacking each other with unprecedented bloodlust. His curse is as relentless as the weather bearing his name, as he sends storms and fog into the path of an ill-fated ship.

Storm is worshipped not only by zailors, but also by London's suspicious number of urchins. The urchins' high priest of sorts is a boy called Slivvy, with a stutter and a port-wine birthmark on his cheek. Storm's blessing has allowed Slivvy to never grow up, so he has held his position for quite a long time.

Storm is known to possess individuals, whose eyes turn gray and who become convinced that they are Storm himself.

What is Storm?

Storm is dead. He has been dead for a long while, and remembering that fact makes him quite enraged. He used to be an Aeginae in the service of the Sun, but he committed some kind of fault, and now is in exile in the Neath. His anger sometimes gets the better of him; he seeks children as his followers because they do not have regrets, making them more useful to his means and allowing him some semblance of peace.

Despite everything that has befallen him, he still loves the Judgements. Like the other Aeginae, he is probably enforcing the Bazaar's seven-city limit.

Storm can freely use mirrors to travel back and forth to Parabola.

Salt once tried to contact Storm, but he kept eating every messenger it sent. Then Salt learned Storm's Name, and Storm was forced to listen. It didn't work out too well for either of them. To this day, they seem to remain in some sort of conflict.

Stone

"It's very far away; but perhaps it's watching you."

"Long ago a hungry monarch built a castle. The monarch saw a light in the south, in the palace of the south's queen. In those days, hungry as the monarch was, that light provoked nothing but appetite. But she was too far to devour. Over time, their correspondence calmed the monarch, and when the time came for the monarch to depart, the monarch's appetite was transformed, like blood into tears.

You have one word from the queen's correspondence. She won't be pleased."

Stone is known as the protector of all the islands on the Zee. She resides deep within the Elder Continent, as the Mountain of Light.

Stone is many things: a living mountain far to the south of the Presbyterate, the source of the Wax Wind, the daughter of the Bazaar and the Sun, the mother of Mt. Nomad. People from around the Elder Continent regularly make pilgrimages to her, and sometimes they clip relics (called Mountain-Sherds) from her slopes.

Stone influences the lives of nearly all who inhabit the Neath. The unnatural, unexplainable vitality she emits is what makes death in this realm mostly impermanent. The normally inanimate denizens of Polythreme are so alive that they scream, and the citizens of the Elder Continent have particularly long lives.

The Thief-of-Faces - the original Snuffer - created Mt Nomad many ages ago by stealing jewels from Stone's wombs.

Gaining Stone's attention may make you healthier and more agile. Her curse, on the other hand, denies you home and hearth -- your sleep will be restless, unhealing and plagued with nightmares. Stone is perhaps the most impactful and influential Zee-god. Be wary of surprise bits of stone and even diamonds showing up unaccounted for on the ship; these may mean Stone is watching you from her glowing, ever-living mountain home.

The Mountain is likely named after the diamond known as the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light in Persian). This diamond was once the largest in the world, and passed through the hands of the Kakatiya dynasty in India, the Persian Empire, and the British Empire. It is now a part of Queen Elizabeth II's crown. It may also reference Debre Berhan, a former capital of Ethiopia whose name is Amharic for "Mountain of Light".

Salt

"We will sail East, and the islands will fall behind. The zee will be troubled by greater waves. The false-stars will pale, until the Neath-roof grows invisible above. New scents will prickle the air: something like spice and something like pine."

"Long ago, a traveller went East, seeking something that could not be found in the black and starry kingdoms of the High Wilderness, nor in the irrigo temptations of the Nadir. Not in the glow of the Forge nor the crushing silence of the Unterzee deeps. Not in the shapeling citadels, not in the light of the South, not of the Sundered Sea. The traveller went East, and others may follow.

You have found something the traveller tried to forget: that naked need. The traveller won't be pleased."

The flowing currents of time and memory are Salt's domain. It is the embodiment of the Zee itself; its origin is unknown, though it is believed that it may exist far to the east, farther than anyone dares to go.

Salt's influence affects all travelers of the Zee. Its attention can bring the blessings of sudden revelations, or the most devastating of curses. It can undo past achievements, take loved ones, and even alter one's past so that one would be erased entirely. Keep an eye out for its messenger, the White Bat; if it is watching you, Salt is watching.

(Was Salt mortal once? Was it once like us, a mere explorer who discovered something beyond our comprehension? What lies in the far reaches of its domain?)

Salinity

Salt is likely a Judgement who found his way to the Neath. It's implied that another Sun sent Salt here to take a look at the Neath's activities. In the process, however, it got distracted and drifted away from its mission. Salt gave up its memories and name, building of them a castle of ice. Then it ventured from Irem into the Uttermost East, where now it waits for others to follow. Someday, it will return, and rise to face the White in its palace of poisoned crystal.

Salt is sometimes called the Sun-Beneath-the-Sea.